“Me, too. But maybe the fact that Marshall has been keeping everyone in this area under his thumb has worked in our favor.”
The Amazon Basin was filled with many different tribes. And like people everywhere, there were times when they were warring. Also, there were the gold miners who ventured into this area. They didn’t like anyone who came near them.
“Do you want me to help carry Piper?” Justine asked. She wasn’t sure she could carry Piper, but Nigel was limping from walking on his wounded feet, and she wanted to do something to help him.
“No. You have enough to worry about, keeping yourself upright.”
“I know. We look like the losers.” She felt like one, too. She was battered and aching, and she knew tomorrow she was going to feel even worse. She had to look like hell, but Nigel had never really seemed to be attracted to her because of her hair or her makeup.
“Looks can be deceiving,” Nigel said.
“Yes, they can,” she said. She’d never thought a man like Nigel—a Baron Industries executive—would be a man she could love. But he was.
It had been a rough day so far, and the night promised to be even longer. They still had a lot of work to do to wrap up everything that had happened in the jungle. There were arrests to be made, injuries to be treated, and as they moved back out of the jungle, she realized a distance was growing between her and Nigel.
Justine knew herself well enough to know that though Nigel seemed fascinating and different here in the Amazon Basin, once they returned to civilization, he’d be like all the other men she’d known, and lose interest in her.
Well, maybe not, but she’d be back to her old self. The woman who knew better than to trust any
man
.
“Are we really having this conversation?” he asked.
She knew what he meant. Maybe she was going a little crazy from everything that had happened. She knew it was inane, but it was the only thing that kept her from the fatigue that dogged her every step. That and the fear that rode shotgun with it. She couldn’t close her eyes without being assailed with some image that was so foreign to her everyday life, that it made her feel like she was someone else.
“I’m tired,” Justine said suddenly. Her wound continued to throb, and all she really wanted was to curl up in Nigel’s arms. And that so wasn’t like her.
Maybe that was part of the problem. For the first time, she was in a situation that she couldn’t handle on her own. A situation she didn’t want to handle on her own. God, she’d only known the man a little over a day. He didn’t mean anything to her. Yet at the same time, he did.
He stood there, watching her. She felt a million things at once, but mostly she focused on the sense of urgency in the back of her mind, and the feeling that time was running out for her and Nigel.
And she still needed him. She had the strange feeling that a lifetime together wasn’t going to be enough time to figure out this man.
And that scared her, because she had no idea if she had the stamina to spend a lifetime with Nigel. But her heart ached at the thought of not spending the rest of her life with him.
N
igel paid for the best for Piper. She’d been airlifted out of Cusco and flown straight to the best hospital in Lima. Justine had accompanied him because he’d flat-out refused to let her stay behind. She’d barely made the long trek out of the jungle, and had collapsed as soon as they’d met up with Anna.
Justine had needed to have the bullet removed from her thigh. She was out of surgery now, and in a recovery room right next to Piper’s.
Nigel didn’t know what the future held for he and Justine, but he knew that he wasn’t going walk away from her.
“Daddy?”
“I’m here, Piper.”
He went to her and bent low over her bed, brushing a kiss on her forehead. “I had a really bad dream.”
“Well, I’m here now, and you are safe.”
“Is Constance okay?” Piper asked, sitting up in bed, looking around the room for her nanny.
“Constance didn’t make it out of the jungle, baby.”
Tears fell down Piper’s face. Nigel sat down beside her and drew her into his arms. “I miss her, Daddy.”
“I know, Pip. I miss her, too.”
She closed her eyes and he felt her body go limp against his as she drifted off to sleep.
“Daddy?” she asked, sleepily stirring in his arms.
“Hmm?”
“I want to go home,” Piper said, looking up at him with those bright eyes of hers.
“We are going home as soon as the doctor says you can travel.”
Piper drifted back to sleep. He’d had similar conversations with her each time she woke. There was always that moment of panic in her voice, and then her desire to go home.
Nigel just needed to take care of her. And he knew he’d never make the same mistakes he had before. Arrogantly thinking that he and Piper were safe as long as they were together. He stepped into the hallway and opened the door to Justine’s room. She was resting quietly in her bed. He watched her from the door for a few moments, tempted to go inside and hold her. He’d needed that for so long, but he was afraid that now that they were both back in the real world, she was going to push him away.
Justine wasn’t the type of woman who’d just let him take over her life. Anyone else, and he would have known that a proposal and some sweet words would win her over, but not Justine.
He saw her move restlessly in the bed, and walked into her room. He put his hand on her shoulder to calm her, that touch soothing him as he saw her relax. He bent low and brushed his lips over her forehead before walking out of her room and back into Piper’s. As soon as he checked on his daughter, he went to the alcove and called Sam Liberty.
“Hello, Nigel.”
“Sam, I need another bodyguard.”
“The team assures me they got everyone who was threatening you.”
“It’s not for me. I need someone to help me watch over Piper and Justine until I can get them back to the States.”
“Justine?”
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
“No. Not at all. I’ll have to see if I have another team available. Anna and Charity are still finishing up the work at your factory in Cusco.”
“That’s fine. I just don’t want to take any chances with either of them.”
“Justine doesn’t react well to coddling,” Sam said.
“I understand that. I have another job for you as well.”
“What kind of job?”
“Just a records search. It’s a personal matter, Sam, and I’d appreciate your discretion on this one.”
Sam took a deep breath. “You can trust me, Nigel. What is it you need?”
“I want the name of Justine’s stepfather. She told me some things about her past, and I’m not sure if you are familiar with the details.”
“I am,” Sam said. “Nigel, that is a situation that is better left alone. She doesn’t want anything from that life to touch the woman she is today.”
Nigel knew that, but without resolving her past, Justine was a prisoner to it. And he thought maybe confronting the ghosts of her stepfather would help.
“So, you won’t help me with this?”
“No. I can’t.”
“Very well. When will you know about the bodyguard?”
“In a few hours, probably. How should I reach you?” Sam asked.
Nigel looked at his watch and realized it was after ten. Much later than it seemed to him. “Text me and I’ll call you back.”
“Very good. Bye.”
Nigel felt pretty good considering all the trauma his body had been through. That EpiPen had probably saved his life. The ER doctor had said that the poisonous plant he’d stepped on could have been deadly for someone with a reaction like his.
Justine had done so much for him. More than she’d probably ever realize. But she had saved his life in the jungle, and his sanity, when they’d been hunting for Piper. Without her, he wasn’t sure he’d have made it through the last forty-eight hours.
How could he repay that?
He looked over at Piper, with her little stuffed bunny tucked close to her chin as she slept. The doctor he’d talked to had said that her memories would return over time, but not to worry because these types of traumas were best managed by being open and keeping the child safe.
Nigel knew that having the right people around Piper would help as well, and he also knew that he needed—no, he wanted—a woman like Justine to be an influence over Piper as well.
Justine woke in the middle of the night. She couldn’t stand hospitals, and this one wasn’t going to change her mind. She’d come to Lima with Nigel because she hadn’t wanted to leave his side, but she hadn’t planned on staying here.
She reached for her BlackBerry to check the time: two a.m. She had a message from Sam to call him back. None of her was sure what time zone Sam lived in, but whenever they called him, he always answered his phone.
“Hello, Justine.”
“Hello, Sam. I’m returning your call.”
“How are your injuries? Did the surgery go okay on your thigh?”
“Everything went well. The doctor said probably six weeks tops, and I’ll be back to normal. I’m going to start working out on my thigh as soon as I can to keep the muscle strength. I don’t want to lose any of it.”
“Good. I need you in top shape if you’re coming back.”
Justine had to play that last part back in her mind. “Did you say, ‘if’?”
“Yes. I had a conversation with Nigel earlier tonight.”
“About?”
“Hiring a bodyguard to protect you.”
“Like hell. And by the way, I am coming back to work. I’m nothing without my job.”
Sam said nothing to her for a long moment, and she sat there digesting what he’d said and how she’d responded. She’d discovered another part of herself with Nigel, but that didn’t mean she was ready to leave behind who she had been.
“I am not quitting, Sam.”
“Good. I didn’t think you were, but I had to ask…there’s something else I need to talk to you about.”
“Okay. What is it?”
“I’m not sure how to say this.”
“Sam, you are never tongue-tied. Whatever it is, I’ll get over being pissed at you.”
“Ha. I didn’t do anything to make you angry. Nigel asked me to do something private and personal for him, and it involved you.”
“How?”
“He asked me to look into who your stepfather is.”
“What did you say?” Justine knew that one word from Sam, and Nigel would probably run from her like the pariah she was, where respectable society was concerned.
“I advised him that you wouldn’t appreciate him doing that.”
Justine leaned back against the pillow on the hospital bed. Her entire body ached from being shot at. She was tired, but she realized for the first time she was actually pretty close to being content with her life and where she was in it.
“He thinks…”
“What?”
“That the past shapes us into the person we are.”
Sam cleared his throat. “I agree with that.”
“I’ve always hidden my past and kept it buried. I don’t really want anyone to know the girl I was.”
Her hand itched where they’d put in an IV drip. She scratched around the tape, wondering if she should just pull it out and get out of this bed. She should leave this hospital room, and just walk out of this life.
“I could start again, and no one would even know the difference.”
“I would know,” Sam said, his deep voice a little gruffer than usual.
“Do you remember when we first met…ha, I mean when you first called me?
“Yes, I do. You thought I was a blackmailer.”
“I did,” Justine said. Back then she hadn’t trusted anyone at all. She was more concerned with watching her own back, and had been confident that everyone she met would use the fact that she’d killed a man against her.
“You really helped change me, Sam. Made me into a better person. I’m not sure I’ve ever thanked you for that.”
“You’re welcome. Are you saying good-bye?”
Justine thought long and hard about that. Before she’d come to Peru with Nigel, she’d known something had to change in her life, but sitting here she realized she didn’t want it to be her job.
“No, I’m not. Saving people is something I’m good at, and I can’t imagine going back to being a vigilante.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Sam said. “Can I give you a piece of advice?”
“When have you not?”
Sam laughed. “Tell Nigel everything so he doesn’t find it out later.”
“I have told him all of it.”
“But not the name,” Sam said and hung up.
Justine played with her BlackBerry, knowing she’d held out on the name because Nigel worked for the family who had betrayed her. Justine knew they all weren’t bad people, but some of them had been, and she was afraid of his reaction if he did tell her about Franklin Baron.
It had been three days since Nigel and Piper were admitted to the hospital. Justine had left yesterday and was now resting comfortably at a private home owned by Liberty Investigations.
Nigel had a hired driver take them to Justine’s address. There had been no time to really talk to her at the hospital. And there was still so much left unsaid between them.
And she’d left without saying a word. He knew that she’d been called back to talk to the officials about what had happened in the jungle, and to answer for the men she’d killed.
He knew that because he’d done the same thing in Piper’s hospital room.
He and Piper got out of the car, and his daughter put her small hand in his. “Are you nervous, Daddy?”
“I am, Pip. I don’t know why, though.”
“I think it’s because you like Justine, and miss her.”
“Really?” he asked his daughter. “Why do you think that?”
“You keep staring at the sketch I did of her,” Piper said.
“Do I?”
“Yes,” she said.
“I do like her, Piper, and if there’s a way, I want Justine to come and be part of our family.”
“Like Constance was?”
“No. Like your mum was.”
“Oh,” Piper said, getting very quiet. He turned to his daughter and dropped down on one knee so they were eye level.
“What’s the matter? Don’t you like Justine?”
“I don’t really know her,” Piper said.
Nigel realized that over the last few days, his relationship had changed so much with Justine. But to Piper she was still just the bodyguard who looked like a fairy. “It wouldn’t have to be right away.”
Piper nodded. “I do like her, Daddy.”
“This discussion could be for nothing. She might not like me enough to want to be a part of our family.”
“Let’s go inside and find out,” Piper said.
He smiled a little at his daughter. She was getting her spirit back after the effects of the drugs left her system. She was still sad at bedtime, when she missed Constance, but Nigel thought with time that would pass, too.
They rang the bell and a few moments later Charity answered the door.
“I’m here to see Justine,” Nigel said, by way of a greeting.
“Come in,” she said. “Hello, Piper, how are you feeling?”
“Pretty good today, thank you.”
Charity led them into a main living area that was furnished with oversized stuffed couches. “There’s a portrait gallery down the hall, Piper. Would you like to see it?”
She nodded. “Is that okay, Daddy?”
“Sure. Where is Justine?”
“Outside in the gardens.”
He walked toward the French doors that led outside, and stood on the terrace for a few minutes. He had no idea what he’d say to her. He wanted her to come and live with him and Piper, but he knew he couldn’t ask her to give up this life.
He didn’t want to ask her to give it up. Her job was dangerous, but he knew there might be other kids Piper’s age who would need Justine’s protection. Need her skills to save them, and he couldn’t—wouldn’t—ask her to give that up.
He just needed to know that she was his. He needed some confirmation that together, the two of them were going to be a couple.
He went down the steps and followed the garden path toward the fountain in the center. She was sitting on a stone bench on one side.
“What are you doing here, Nigel?”
“I came to see you.”
She looked small and fragile in this garden, not at all like the warrior he knew her to be.
“Why?”
“You left the hospital without saying good-bye.”
She stood up, wrapping her arms around her waist. “I’m sorry about that. You and Piper were sleeping when I left.”
He made his way slowly around the fountain to her side. He couldn’t wait another second to have her in his arms. The distance, the awkwardness between them, melted away as he pulled her close to him.
He kissed her hard and held her as tightly as he could. “I love you, Justine O’Neill, and I’m here to see if you will spend the rest of your life with me.”
Justine hugged him so tightly that he felt her small bones through the layers of his clothing. “Sit down, Nigel. There is more you need to know about me before you ask me that question.”
Justine didn’t know if talking more about her past would affect Nigel or not. But she thought Sam had been right when he’d told her she couldn’t move forward while she was hiding from her past. The girl she’d been was long gone, but the people who had been affected by that one incident were still around.
Nigel sat down on the bench she’d vacated, and Justine realized she had no idea where to start. She probably should just start at the beginning, but words weren’t easy for her when she thought about her past.